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A source for cheap test charts
  • csynccsync

    Has anyone purchased from digitalimageflow on ebay? I was thinking of purchasing this color chart/grey card. I know that quality matters a fair amount for these charts, but the feedback left for them sounds positive, though who knows what kind of people are leaving it. If anyone has a good source for cheap color charts or white/grey cards, I'd appreciate it as I'm looking to buy a few this week (shooting without them is a pain, especially for color correction).

  • 4 Replies sorted by
  • MeierhansMeierhans

    In the description it says: "On the front there are 18 offset printed reference color targets". I doubt it will make much difference for the greyscale, but for the colors normally you have different materials for each color and this does make a difference. I guess you will get the pretty much same results if you print the jpeg from the auction on a calibrated printer yourself. ;)

    I would better take something with a known name on it, used you can get them quite cheap as well: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Macbeth-Colorchecker-Color-Rendition-Chart-Test-Pattern-True-Color-Balance-/270890518261?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f125546f5

  • mythmakermythmaker

    I'm kind of cynical re: the whole accuracy thing of various color charts. Several years ago when I was working as a camera assistant on a big feature, the DP during camera prep decided to play a prank on the colorists at the lab. We shot camera tests with a standard Macbeth color chart and also with a $5 color photocopy of a jpg of a similar chart from a website. The DP asked the colorist (who is very very good btw and has been working for 20+yrs on many Hollywood features) to tell him which one was the authentic color chart. The colorist, knowing he was being tested eventually came back with "neither of them - they're both genuine". Needless to say, he was pretty surprised when he found out one of them was a low grade photo copy.

    We ended up mounting the photocopy on a piece of card and used it many times over the next couple of years and the DPs had no idea it wasn't a genuine Macbeth chart.

  • rsquiresrsquires

    I just had a brainwave and went to the local hardware store. Searched in the paint department for paint swatches and was especially keen on finding a large size mid grey card to use as a white balancer. All the swatches were free. I then bought a bit of black foam core which was around $2.00.

    I then cut each colour out into 35mm squares, not accurately and a bit lop sided, and then spray mounted them to the board

    This is version one to test out how it works. I reckon it's alright. Tested it in FCPX and it seems to work really well.

    colourchart-before.jpg
    857 x 1143 - 210K
    colourchart-final.jpg
    1142 x 857 - 197K
  • dancerchrisdancerchris

    @rsquires good idea! (if you have the original chart to refer to).

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